Large Cents (1845, 1848, 1849, 1851): Varying Weights Worry

Hello all,

I am quite new to coin collecting, having recently become interested in the large U.S. cents of the 19th century.

I started my collection a few weeks ago with a modest purchase through ebay of a lot of four coins. I put them in a nice, new Dansco album and thought my collection was well underway.

However, I've done a lot of reading of late and have discovered that counterfeit U.S. coins (mainly from China) are commonly found on the Internet, particularly in ebay auctions. One warning I've commonly seen was to avoid auctions where the seller claims that they aren't coin experts, that the coins were bought at an estate sale, that the buyer should judge the coin for himself or herself. Oops! Those were almost the exact words in the listing of the coins that I bought!

Now, I have this nagging worry that I may have bought counterfeit coins, which sure takes the fun out of owning those cents. So, I've gone back and taken a very detailed look at the four large cents. I've measured the four coins, weighed them, examined their edges with a loupe, and photographed them with a macro lens.

The edges look fine to me; I see no indication of an edge line indicating two halves put together.

My main concern is the varying weights of the four coins. (I believe my measured weights are accurate; I put a modern nickel on my digital scale and it came back as 4.99 grams.) The Red Book tells me that the standard weight for these large cents is 10.89 grams, and that the standard diameter is 27.5 mm.

My coins have a significant amount of variance from the standard weight as well as a wide variance amongst the individual coins. Is this typical for worn large cents of this time period, or is it an indication of a likely counterfeit? I sure would appreciate any of your comments and opinions.

Below are photographs of my four coins along with their respective weights and dimensions:



1845. Weight 10.53 gm.; diameter 27.67 mm.



1848. Weight 10.26 gm.; diameter 27.51 mm.



1849. Weight 10.20 gm.; diameter 27.69 mm.



1851. Weight 10.63 gm.; diameter 27.74 mm.

Note the varying weights of the four coins; and all of the weights are significantly different from the nominal 10.89 grams. I've also noticed that the text "One Cent" on the reverse of the 1848 coin is a fatter font. Is that typical?

Thanks again for your help. Perhaps I'm worrying excessively; but as I said, I'm a beginner and still learning. If I did get bad coins, I hope to at least gain some useful knowledge from the experience.

Regards,
Earl